Parky on Goody

I don't think this has ever happened to me before, but I agree absolutely with Michael Parkinson:

"Her death is as sad as the death of any young person but it's not the passing of a martyr or a saint or, God help us, Princess Di... When we clear the media smokescreen from around her death, what we're left with is a woman who came to represent all that's paltry and wretched about Britain today. She was brought up on a sink estate, as a child came to know both drugs and crime, was barely educated, ignorant and puerile. Then she was projected to celebrity by Big Brother and, from that point on, became a media chattel to be manipulated and exploited till the day she died."

And:

"What bothers me is that the media first of all recommended we hate Jade Goody. 'A slapper with a face like a pig'; 'the most hated woman in Britain', remember? And shortly thereafter tried to persuade us to celebrate her."

Finally:

He said Goody was "the perfect victim of our times...brought up in a cesspit of poverty and died to an orchestrated chorus of exploitation".

The only caveat I'd add is that Jade made the choice to be exploited by the media; she lived off it, loved it and revelled in it. She was the perfect partner with the media in the eradication of anything approaching dignity in her life and death.

Fair play to Goody; she took what little talent she had (namely shamelessness) and used it to turn herself into a millionaire and to look after her kids after her death. But the ongoing media spotlight on her death, and the mourning that seems to go all the way up to fucking Downing Street has nothing to do with celebrating Goody's life, but has far more to do with the Great British past time of wallowing in the misery of others and loving a real life soap opera with a tragic end.